Side bearing for railway cars



Feb. 2s, 1928. 1,660,525

L. RICHARDSON SIDE BEARING FOR RAILWAY CARS Filed Aug. 6. 1923 ingly important.

Yintentes fret. i928.

' narran :STATES Lswiannciinronnnnson, oniLouIsviLLn, KENTUCKY.; ,l

y m6055125 ,PATENT v 'Fi-Tiefe.,

sinn BEARING non, RAILWAY cans.

Application filed August 6, 1923. Serial No. 655,831. f

rlhis invention `relates to side bearings for sters. investigation into the reason for `this lll trouble reveals the 'i'act that the lateral blows lav a lare part. rlhis is esneciall true l b L i when the side bearings are located at a plane higher than vtno center plates. Accordi-iight, one object ot my vpresent invention is to overcome the excessive lateral blows on side bearings. f

Another object Vis to provide a simple, durable and eliicient side bearing whereby the .lateral blows are taken primarily at `the center plates, thereby relieving the side bearings.

These and other objects are accomplished by means of the arrangement disclosed on the accompanying sheet ot drawings, in

which- Figure 1 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view of a railway car constructed in accordance with my invention, and

Figure 2 is a plan view of the disclosure of Figure 1 taken on line 2*- X.

lt will be noted 'that the invention is illustrated in connection with a 'box car having a body 10 and body bolster 11 under which the center sill structure 12 is located, said center sill at each end carrying an upper center plate 13 which cooperates with a lower center plate 14C carried by a truck bolster 15.

' ln view of the tact thatthe center plates are designed for severe lateral stresses, the side bearings should be relieved as much as possible from such lateral stresses, especially in high capacity cars where the lateral stresses are excessive. In cases such as the one illustrated, wherein the. center plate 14 is on a plane lower than the side bearings, it will be appreciated-that a relatively heavy lateral vblow would be delivered to the lower side bearings by the upper side bearing of the usual type ifv the tracks were irregular, causing a swaying bach and forth o'l the car body. Or again, in going around a sharp v curve to the right with the left hand' rail banked, it will be appreciated that the lower bearing on the lett hand side will be raised and the upper bearing on the left hand side will have a tendency to lower in view of the 'around a curve.

tact that the car body will have a tendency i to continue inthe saine direction in which it wasinoving beforellthe curve was reached. The resultl would be that'a relatively heavy lateral blow would be `delivered. to thelower lett hand bearing. A similar blow would be delivered to ythe. lower` right handbearing if .the truck curved to thelett and if the right hand rail were banked. Such side bearing blows., as. .mentioned above, are excessive, especially in the presentl day high capacity cars using heavy holsters, and it is primarily the object of this invention to overcome such' heavy lateral blows to the lo'wer'side bearing members and to permit the center plate, which yis designed 'for excessive lateraly blows, to assume the latter.- l To this end the upper side bearings 16 carried by the bodybolster have their lower surfaces inclined, extending downwardly and outwardly. In a similar manner theVw lower side bearingsl'? carried by the truck bolster structure have theirupper cooperatl ing surfaces inclined downwardly and outwardly. As a result thereof when the car body sways from one side to the other and the side bearings 16 and 17 on one side pass into engagement with eachother, instead oi.

there being a heavy lateral load delivered to v the lower side bearing 17, there is a relative lateral fr-ictional sliding movement of the upper and lower side bearings, such lateral sliding movement continuingy until the lateral movement is checked by the center plates.4

From thedisclosure in Figure 2, it will be observed that the bearing portions 16 and 17 are arcuate, having a curve struck from thel pivot center of the vcenter bearing, thus maintaining the same spaced relationship between the upper and lower bearing members for all positions of the bolsters 11 and 15 relative to each other,irrespective oi"- the angular displacement caused when the car travels TWhile in the illustration here shown theside bearings are located at al higher plane bearings outwardly, as shown, theseexcesy ioe 'than the center plates, it will be appreciated that even with the side bearings on a level,

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normal vertical load multiplied by the cof` efhcient of friction. Any lateral blow in eX- cess of this combination is naturally transy ferred .to the center plate, but the center plate isusually designed for severe lateral stresses and therefore can assume the one in question with Very little additional metal, if any. The relief of the lateral blow naturally is proportional to the angle of inclination.

It is my `intention to cover all modifications of the invention falling within `the spirit and scope of thefollowing claims.

I claim: l. l. In a railway car, the combination of a body bolster, a truck bolster and side bearing parts immovably fixed on each of said holsters, said parts having cooperating surfaces inclined at a predetermined angle, said angle being calculated to reducelateral fricu associated therewith, and side bearing parts `tion between said bearing parts a predetermined amount which amount is suflicient to eliminate ,theV absorption of a predetermined amount of the lateral force, by the side bear* ing parts. Y.

2. In a railway car, the combination of a body bolster, a truck bolster, center plates immovably xed on each of said 'holsters and having cooperating surfaces inclined at a predetermined angle, said angle being calculated to reduce lateral friction between said bearing parts a predetermined amount which amount is suiiicient to eliminate the absorption of a predetermined amount of the lateral force, by the side bearing parts.

8. In a railway car, immovably fixed bearing` partshaving cooperating surfaces inclined at a predetermined angle, saidangle beingcalculated toreduce lateral friction between said bearing parts a. predetermined amount which amount is sufficient to eliminate the absorption of a predetermined amount of the lateral force, by the side bearing parts. A

4. .In a railway car,-immoVa'blyifXed side bearings at each side. of the car having cooperating surface-s which extend ldownwardly and outwardly at a predetermined angle with respect to the center of thecar, Said angle being calculated to reducelateral fric` tion between said bearing parts to predetermined amount, Whicli amount is suiiicient to eliminate the absorption vof the predeterminedV amount, whereby substantially all the lateral `force is taken on the center bearing.A

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, this 3rd day of August 1923. l

"LAWRENCE RICHARDSON. 

